


Machine Learning

by Echolight



Series: CS Terms One-Shots [1]
Category: Billions (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Introspection, Metaphors, One Shot, POV Third Person, Present Tense, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 07:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20962499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Echolight/pseuds/Echolight
Summary: Machine learning uses algorithms to build a mathematical model based on sample data in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform the task.Winston was a machine, simply being fed input and hoping that he produced the output expected of him.





	Machine Learning

**Author's Note:**

> The beginning of a series where I take CS terms and write a one-shot in one sitting based on it for Winston. Which means it'll also be pretty OOC. Also, since it's done in one sitting (1 hr and 10 min) with minimal editing, it'll be a hot mess so I apologize for [all of this] in advance.

Winston couldn’t seem to get a solid grasp on how to deal with other people. He had over two decades of data on what should have taught him to lead successful interactions, but no matter how hard he tried, they never went the way he expected them to.

Everyone expected him to act a certain way, but no one would tell him exactly what that way was. When he disappointed, it was somehow his fault.

He could see it in every failed social interaction, where he evaluated everything about the situation, from the kind of person he was talking to, where they were, his relationship with them, to how the conversation had been going up until now, what they said, and their tone of voice. He took in every factor he could think of into account and weighed them all before formulating his response.

And then he opened his mouth and spoke.

So often he could tell that despite the painstaking effort he put into evaluating the entire situation at hand as well as he could, he had failed. He would get a range of reactions in response, which he also tried to catalog. He had people abruptly walk away from the conversation, cuss him out, cruelly laugh at him, and give hundreds more of different reactions. Still, other times they would continue, but he could tell that they were now closed off to him. The spark would fade from their eyes and he knew that although he had failed, it hadn’t been to the degree of say, getting a drink thrown in his face. Not every interaction was a failure, though. Some would go according to plan just often enough that he couldn’t be completely discouraged. Still, the number of failures far outweighed the successes.

He didn’t understand what he was missing. Why were some situations a success while others were so very clearly not? Was it some hidden factor that everyone knew about except for him? Did he simply miss the day where everyone was taught how to properly interact with other human beings? Or was he just broken? Did he have a defective part, and no matter how hard he tried he would he never learn the correct output to the inputs everyone expected of him? Those questions occasionally ran through his brain, none of which he ever knew the answer to.

Every time he found himself lingering on those thoughts, he had to make a conscious effort to clear them from his mind, or else he would fall into despair over it.

Instead, he focused on something else. After every failed interaction, he later analyzed and agonized over it. He replayed the expressions on people’s faces, their words, their body language, over and over, trying to figure out what had caused the result. He studied his own actions and the components that had lead him to act the way he did.

Sometimes, he threw all his analysis and prepared actions away. He said the first thing that came into his mind. He acted impulsively. His algorithmically generated plans clearly weren’t working, which meant that he needed to try something new. That, also received a varying degree of reactions.

Still, in the most rare of times, it felt as though his careful work had paid off. He would say the correct words and act the correct way, and the other person would be receptive. Those were the moments that made him think that surely he must be learning, that all his failed interactions were finally paying off.

And then he filed away the interaction into his ever-growing collection of attempts, hoping that the new data he gained from this latest attempt would help him crack the code everyone else seemed to be born with.

**Author's Note:**

> Do NOT talk to me about this fic if I've ever talked to you before. Thanks.


End file.
